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On the 5th measure, it wants me to play an E and a B flat at the same time with my left hand fingers 3 and 1 respectively. And because I don't have a teacher I was wondering where exactly does my 3rd finger go on the E note? Like how far up the key should it go? Cause it's kinda awkward to play.

Hello, I just started playing last Monday and my teacher give me an assignment to do warm-ups, scales and then go to the book and perform everything up to and including Jingle Bells. I finally licked it this past Thursday. I’ve been practicing everyday 1 to 2 hours on the same stuff and just recorded my JB yesterday on my Casio PX320. My teacher comes tonight so I hope he approves of my progress so I can move on.

I’ve been practicing JB so much, I swear I’ve played it about 100 times, when I was at work Friday, I was humming the tune, and our secretary heard me and said, “Are you singing JB. It’s a little early for that” and I had to explain why.

Anyway I loved this and wanted to play every since I was in high school, so I figured I better start now while I’m still walking this earth. I’M NEVER GONNA QUIT PLAYING.

Welcome to the club Nvr Don't hesitate to ask about anything cause there's always helpful people here who have gone through the same and willing to give a hand. I also was late in the club, wanted to start playing the piano at start of high school, ended up starting at the age of 20, wish I picked it up sooner, but now I'm just satisfied with having finally picked it up.

Its been 4 weeks since I started playing today from this course book and I'm up to Cafe Vienna, so its not that long since I was still at Jingle bells which actually felt a bit challenging at first :p just don't get frustrated with the pieces and you'll eventually learn it. Up to around 'Blow the man down' you can probably progress very rapidly, still there's a few challenging pieces in between.

For instance I had quite a bit of problems with Blow the man down and I just couldn't really figure out what to do with it, but after practicing it for a few days it just registered the movements in my brain and just felt like I played out of memory.

Anyways, enjoy playing it just gets more and more exciting the longer you'd play I say. And I can't wait until I play even more challenging pieces, I can't wait to get to The Entertainer and nail it down, but its some months ahead in time :p

I've just received this book today and I can already play up to "The Entertainer." I've worked out the melody line already and will add the bass line in later. This isn't the first book I've been using, but it is defiantly the most explicit and fun. It's great for referencing warm-ups. I'm already eager for book two which I have on order, happy playing everyone!

Anyone know where I could take a listen to the song Lullaby, just finished Cafe Vienna, but would like to hear what Lullaby sounds like, though I can only find Brahm's Lullaby on youtube (which is from book 2).

I tried getting into "Rock it away", but I just don't get it at all. So I'm gonna have to pester you with some questions

Do I start it in G position, and do I start in G with both hands, or do I start as with the previous songs, first finger covering C and D, then 2nd E etc? That's what makes sense at least when I try to play it, but then the C appears, do I switch up to C position or does that mean that the note I'm playing note is the C? Either way it doesn't make sense when playing it. I tried both variations.

Or am I just overthinking and that I play it in c position like many of the other early songs and the letters at the top actually stand for the chords I'm supposed to play?

Least if I knew where I started and knew if I changed positions it would be easier

On "Rock It Away!" you start on both G note and G chord with both hands, the bass lasting for two measures. You shouldn't have to change positions very much here except for the few chord variations of C and D7.

Thanks both of you. I started realizing it after work, its been a while since seen chords named, so I thought it was from positions at first. Then i remembered it was used at some songs earlier in the book, and I don't recall C position using D7 chords. I just kind of expected the song to be a bit harder really. Seeing as it was no where near as hard as Cafe Vienna the song before, and this had next to no movement. But I guess it might be this way to introduce the flats.

Now it sounds like it should be, I think at least and was very easy to learn.

Here is my "The Entertainer" The book says "not fast" Overall I think it is OK ... I am going to work on evening the tempo and maybe bump it up a notch. Moving on to the last song in the book- "Amazing Grace" This one may take a few weeks, so I will be here awhile longer

PS I finished Amazing Grace today and got a pretty good( finally) recording. It will be my entry in the recital- which I believe comes out on friday. I will post it here after the recital.It has been great participating in the Alfred AIO book 1 with all of you. Ater a short break I will be jumping into the Book 2! Yea!!!Everyone keep up the good work and post you efforts!Carl

Very nice work Romolo, you're almost done with the book now except I guess Amazing Grace will take a little time. Took a look at the sheet music for it the other day and it looks so hard o_o

I'm on Joy to the World, I just need to get the 3 line down properly and it should be taken care of. Just can't seem to do the triple chords like I should be, either start too late, too early or do it too fast/too slow. Ending is slightly sketchy but its stating to sit. Then its cockles and mussels. And after that..blues which I'm not looking forward to at all. The notes seems very little understandable at first glance, plus the rhythm is gonna be rough. (then again a lot of the music will have these notes in the future.)

Quagles, "Joy to the World" and "Cockles and Mussels" were two of my favorites, partly because they were fairly easy for me. But I also like the tunes.

I really struggled with the blues pieces - but then, I'm not really a blues fan. I got through them, but I don't go back to play them again now that I've passed them.

Well, I've finished "Auld Lang Syne". That was the first easy one in quite a few pages. I've slacked off playing quite a bit this summer, partly because it hurts to sit for long periods - hip trouble, partly because I am on a new diet and exercise program which, wonder of all wonders, is actually working, and I am spending more time outside walking or gardening, and more time grocery shopping for "healthy" food. I guess for the time being I've got a new obsession. It's funny how that works. But I went over a lot of the older pieces today, and I can still play most of them. I had a bit of trouble with "Can Can" but after a few run-throughs I got it back. I may learn a couple of songs from the "Greatest Hits" book next. I saw several in there that I think I would really enjoy playing.

Good work on Auld Lang Syne mom3gram and on everything else. I can understand why you liked Joy to the World" and "Cockles and Mussels", while I still don't have Joy to the world completely down, I gave Cockles and Mussels a little attempt instead of playing the same song another 50times to try and make it sound better, and pretty much got the song down in 30mins, the easiest in quite a while, rock it away wasn't all that hard either though. Still there's something new and useful in every song at least. Now to polish this song just a bit more and get Joy to the World finished, before moving on to the blues.

Congratulations CarlMc, Romolo, Mom3gram, Quagles and everybody else that hit a new milestone in the last week or two.

I just got back two days ago from a week long camping trip with no piano or keyboard, but I seem to be pretty much back in the swing of things on the piano now.

I've got Good People down clean, I actually liked that one, it was kinda lazy, bluesy, funky and fun. Little Brown Jug was giving me a little trouble, not the notes, but the rythm. So I started singing "I hate this song, I hate this song......" and suprisingly I nailed it after just a few more tries, lol.

I just started Chiapanecas tonight, and I don't think its going to take too long, nothing too difficult in my first sight read through, just need to get it up to speed and keep the rythm steady. Hoping to get at least through Auld Lang Syne before my next lesson. Plus I'm still working Desperado, its not too bad, but some parts definately still need some work, again not the notes so much as the timing and rythm. In the Greatest Hits, I'm working Its a Small World and Tomorrow, but sometimes skipping up to Memories, I like that song.

Keep up the good work all! I wish I had found this group years ago, I probably would have been playing for years now if I had, you are always all so supportive and encouraging. Thanks!

I started over Christmas (used a beginners keyboard book) finished that then mucked around with a couple of those old John Thompson's books. Found that once I got onto chords I was having hassles. Got an Alfred's Adult self-teaching book and found that fantastic. Taken about 3 months to get through that but I'll often play a piece anything from 50 - 100 times to get it right. Does anyone else here do that? I thought I'd be able to play each new piece right away as I progressed through the book but would often have to refer to the CD to get the timing right - then I was OK. I sometimes find it hard to understand the timing on the page but once I've heard the CD, it falls into place. Does anyone else play their pieces as much as I do or am I just anal?? Does sight-reading also just happen, or is it always hard just starting out?

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Behind every successful woman is some twit who's lost the remote....

I started over Christmas (used a beginners keyboard book) finished that then mucked around with a couple of those old John Thompson's books. Found that once I got onto chords I was having hassles. Got an Alfred's Adult self-teaching book and found that fantastic. Taken about 3 months to get through that but I'll often play a piece anything from 50 - 100 times to get it right. Does anyone else here do that? I thought I'd be able to play each new piece right away as I progressed through the book but would often have to refer to the CD to get the timing right - then I was OK. I sometimes find it hard to understand the timing on the page but once I've heard the CD, it falls into place. Does anyone else play their pieces as much as I do or am I just anal?? Does sight-reading also just happen, or is it always hard just starting out?

I'm a bit in between I think. Sometimes ill do the same piece 100times over and over to make it exactly the way I want. Others I might just play maybe 10-15times after I can do it once, and if it still sits ill move along. Besides I keep doing the same pieces over the next week as a warm up, to see if it was just one in a 100 fluke and make sure I still know it.

I don't know about others but sight-reading is really difficult for me, most songs need quite a few times before I know exactly what keys I'm pushing, hoping to improve it, especially the bass line. Tried reading a bit in a musical theory book but I still get quite the trouble, and once ill play pieces outside the book I won't even have the luxury of knowing which key to hit first. My guess its like with everything with piano, the more you do something the easier it gets.

Sight reading is difficult for just a beginner. I'm almost done with book 1 and I don't seem to be able to just look at a piece and play it. However, it does get better as you move along in the book. Mid way through the book, reading the bass was difficult. I couldn't just look at the note and know what key it was. However, that has gotten a lot better now. The latter pieces in the book really involve the bass a lot. Just keep practicing and you'll see it improve.

Got those blues frustrates me, due to the chord progressions is somewhat out of my understanding. The I is simple enough, that's been played for such a long time, the IV is however one I cannot figure out. The root is still the same, so I assume it is C..then G? and B? That is the one that puzzles me the most. V7 I'm assuming is D-G-A, since root is pushed down, and the right being where the V7 chord is would be F and D, but together they make a rather horrible so again I'm in doubt though it might sound better once all is up to speed. I've tried watching the videos to confirm whatever is the correct but I can't see it a 100%, and while trying to play them they sound a bit "goofy" together.

Since its not such a fast tempo its not that hard, but when I play the chords it makes me wonder if I'm doing it right. (Start my LH on C and G, RH on E and C if that matters, incase I'm actually dumb enough to play it in the wrong position in the first place.)

Tried googling for an answer, but no solution. Sorry for pestering you all with questions due to my lack of knowledge and understanding :S

QuaglesThe fingering of this one gets a bit tricky. Left hand plays 4 measures of the C cord CEG. Then,2 measures of the F cord in the inversion of CFA (normal root positon for F cord would be FAC). Back to 2 measures of the C cord (CEG)and then 1 measure of the G7cord. This inversion of the G7 is being played BFG.So to break the left hand down:C cord is C/E/G fingers 5/3/1F cord is C/F/A fingers 5/2/1- Finger 5 stays on C. Fingers 2 & 1 shift to the right to play F & A. G7 Cord is B/F/G fingers 5/2/1 This cord is played from the C cord position, so finger 5 moves to the left from C to play B- fingers 2& 1 play F&G.

Don't lose sight of the fact that the I, IV, V7 cords of C major are still just C, F, G7 cords and can be played in any of their inversion format. Inversions are first and foremost used to make changing cords easier and also to improve the voicing of a cord to better fit the melody of the right hand.

Thanks Romolo and Quagles. I'm really serious about learning piano and as an adult it seems hard to find other adults who have started and who you can bounce ideas off. It's great to have a forum to discuss this stuff. I find that once the notes go above or below the staves (?) I have trouble figuring out what the note is so I got a piece of manuscript paper and wrote the notes down for reference. Both bass and treble.

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Behind every successful woman is some twit who's lost the remote....

Little Brown Jug is coming along nicely, and Chipanecas also. I accidentally had skipped over Good People, so I'm still working on that one as well. Soon it's off to CA for vacation, but my mom has a piano so I should be able to keep up the progress.

Thanks for that Carl That was what I thought at first but I didn't think the IV note could be like that seeing how it was drawn, maybe I've done silly errors earlier in the book when I think about it. The "V7" note is the that is usually is C-F-A. except that the root is one point higher is what I always thought. Such as in joy to to the world there's notes that is exactly the same as the V7, which is played C-F-A, unless I've gone somewhere wrong there.

Well anyways, makes more sense now still bit of a hard song, having to reach for flats and changing chords pretty often. But coming along now at least.

I'm officially on O Sole Mio right now. It's still in pieces, I'm afraid, but I hope it'll be presentable to my teacher by Thursday.

I had to look after someone in the hospital the past couple of weeks so I missed playing piano the entire time! There was a nice Yamaha grand piano in the hospital lobby but I was too shy to try and play it (I wouldn't want patients to suffer through my renditions of the method book pieces ). My 2-week hiatus, surprisingly, didn't seem to deteriorate my piano 'touch,' but to my horror, it did deteriorate my note-reading skills! I was a bit lost looking at the sheet music during today's lessons

Carl Mc : Nice rendition of The Entertainer! I quite like it better with the faster tempo

In every video I have seen of Got Those Blues on 2nd line, the second and 3rd measures on the line. Where you push the a flat E and C together at the same time, I see everyone is pushing the flat E all three times. But as I understand from the notes you only do it once then a regular C and E, as the flat is only before the first? So is every video I've watched just mistakes from others or can someone explain to my the E should be flat all three times when its only in front of the first note?